The Delta Tao of National
As we stood in front of Pho 75 on Friday, full from the delicious noodle soup, a plane went screaming overheard at just the wrong angle to freak me out a bit. They’ve changed the flight path of planes from over the river to right through lower Courthouse and upper Rosslyn. Passenger jets streak through the evening sky drowning out conversations in the outside tables at the bistro next door, and forcing everyone to stare up.
No, it’s not terrorism, it’s just a changed flight route that’s taking passenger jets over the residential neighborhoods of Arlington instead of over the river as usual.
I live in the flight path that the fighter jets use when performing their training exercises overhead. It’s always unnerving to hear that very specific noise they make in flight.
If You Have a Concern
A 24-hour Noise Complaint Telephone Center operates at National’s Operations Office. This gives citizens a way to voice their concerns over aircraft noise. The telephone number is 703/417-8020. Usually a duty officer will speak with the caller personally, but if that person is not available, the Center’s answering machine will tape record the complaint. The Manager of the Authority’s Noise Abatement Office is also available to discuss noise concerns.
It all depends on the wind. Planes always take off and land into the wind to maximize lift and there’s two runways at National. Runway 19 is more N/S (runway numbers are the degree heading divided by 10 and rounded up – so runway 19 is actually a heading of 186.2) than runway 15 (153.3 deg). The planes coming over your head were likely heading for 15 so they were going a little more westerly. You can see the approach path here[pdf] and compare it to the Pho 75 location – they were dead-on course.
Ehhh a little more east/westerly, that is.